My Kayuta Lake: Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge

On the north end of Cayuga Lake in the heart of the Finger Lakes Region lay a major resting area for migratory waterbirds as they journey to and from nesting areas in Canada. Before the 1900's the Montezuma Marsh used to extend 12 miles north of Cayuga and was 8 miles wide. But after the construction of the dam at Cayuga's outlet and changes made during construction of the New York State Barge Canal, only a small portion of the marsh remained undrained. In 1937, what is now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service purchased 6,432 acres of former marsh where the Civilian Conservation Corps started building a series of low dikes to hold water and restore part of the marsh. The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge was established on September 12, 1938 as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife. Now consisting of more than 7,000 acres, the refuge is carefully managed to ensure a suitable food mix for migratory birds along its 3,500 acres of diked pools as well as to ensure a healthy population of native wildlife in the surrounding wooded areas, grasslands and wetlands.

We started our visit at the Visitor Center in Seneca Falls where we got information about the refuge. We enjoyed viewing their exhibit, anticipating the wildlife that we would see on our tour. It was hot and humid at that time so we decided to skip the walking trails especially after the mosquito warning from the staff.

We instead drove on the self-guided Wildlife Drive which took us along the eastern edge to the northwest part of the Main Pool.

There were different kinds of birds alongside the road. We were able to see a number of great blue herons, lot of ducks (mostly mallards), Canada and snow geese, and a great egret. We would love to come here during the spring or fall migration when a great number of these birds stop by on their way to their breeding grounds. The number of waterfowl supposedly peak in mid-November with about 50,000 geese and more than 100,000 ducks. What a sight that would be!

Egret

Great Blue Heron

At the observation tower overlooking Tschache Pool, a spotting scope allowed us to watch more ducks and snow geese. They were too far away to photograph with my camera's 300m lens. We were hoping to see some bald eagles since one of the 6 active bald eagle nests was supposed to be on Tschache Pool but without success. We could not proceed to the other known site on Armitage Road because of a bridge closure on Rt. 89.

The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge holds the distinction of being the first in North America to use "hacking", a falconry technique to release young bald eagles to the wild. Between 1976 and 1980 when the program was relocated to western new york, the bald eagles restoration program, using this hacking technique, released 23 bald eagles from the refuge. Some eagles returned to the refuge which now has about 60 eagles.

In search for the bald eagles, we went to Mud Lock, where Lock 1 of the Cayuga-Seneca Canal is located where we saw the snow geese mingling with some Canada geese.

Across the canal, there was a large nest on top of a utility tower which appeared to be ospreys rather than bald eagles although they were too far away to be appreciated.

We returned to Route 90 just east of the refuge's boundary where we had earlier noticed similar nests.We saw 3 nests on top of utility towers at least 2 of which had ospreys on or near the nest. We were particularly entertained by the pair below.